A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PHEGEUS. PHEIDIAS. 213
Alex. 34.) It is probably this Phayllus whose I but was slain by the sons of Alcmaeon. (Apollod.
wonderful feats as an athlete are celebrated in a 1. c.; comp. ALCMAEON.)
well-known epigram. (Anth. Pal. vol. ii. p. 851; 2. A son of Dares, priest of Hephaestus at Troy,
Suid. v.,4If/iAos and 7yrep r-a E'KatcCpva; was slain by Diomedes. (Hornom. II. v. 9, &c.)
Eustath. ad Od. E. p. 1591. 54; Tzetz. Chiil. xii. 3. One of the companions of Aeneias. (Virg.
435; Schol. ad Airistoch. Acharn. 214.) Aen. xii. 37].) [L. S.]
2. A Syracusan, who was sent out by his courn- PHEIDIAS (E'eicas), or in Latin, PIII'DIAS.
trymen with a fleet to repress the piracies of the 1. Of Athens, the son of Charmides, was the greatest
Tyrrhenians, B. C. 453; but after laying waste the sculptor and statuary of Greece, and probably of
island of Aethalia, he suffered himself to be bribed the whole world.
by the enemy, and remained inactive; on which I. His Life. It is remarkable, in the case of
account after his return to Syracuse he was con- many of the ancient artists, how great a contrast
demncd and driven into exile. (Diod. xi. 83.) exists between what we know of their fame, and even
3. A Phocian, brother of Onomarchus, whom he sometimes what we see of their works, and what
succeeded as general of the Phocians in the Sacred we can learn respecting the events of their lives.
War. He had already held important commands Thus, with respect to Pheidias, we possess but few
under his brother, by whom he had been sent with details of his personal history, and even these are
an army of 7000 men to support Lycophron of beset with doubts and difficulties. What is known
Pherae against Philip of Macedon. On that occa- with absolute certainty may be summed up in a
sion he was unsuccessful, being defeated by Philip few words. He executed most of his greatest
and driven out of Thessaly; but on the death of works at Athens, during the administration of PeOnomarchus, in B. C. 352, he appears to have suc- ricles: he made for the Eleians the ivory and gold
ceeded without opposition to the chief command. statue of Zeus, the most renowned work of Greek
IHe immediately set to work to restore the affairs statuary: he worked for other Greek cities; and
of the Phocians. By an unsparing use of the vast he died just before the commencement of the Pelotreasures at his disposal, and by doubling the pay ponnesian War, in B. c. 432. The importance of
of his mercenaries, he quickly re-assembled a nu- the subject demands, however, a careful examinamerous army, in addition to which auxiliaries were tion of the difficulties which surround it. The first
furnished him by the Achaeans, Lacedaemonians, of these difficulties relates to the cardinal point of
and Athenians, and the fugitive tyrants of Pherae, the time when the artist flourished, and the apLycophron and Peitholaus, also joined hinm with a proximate date of his birth.
body of mercenaries. The success of his military First of all, the date of Pliny must be disposed of.
operations was, however, far from corresponding It is well known how little reliance can be placed
to these great preparations. He invaded Boeotia; on the dates under which Pliny groups the names
but was defeated in three successive actions, appa- of several artists. Not only do such lists of names
rently none of them very decisive, as we next embrace naturally artists whose ages differed by
find him turning his arms against the Epicnemidian several years, but it is important to observe the
Locrians, and hostilities were carried on with alter- principle on which the dates are generally chosen
nations of success but no striking result. Mean- by Pliny, namely, with reference to some important
while Phayllus himself was attacked with a lin- epoch of Greek history. Thus the 84th Olympiad
gering disorder of a consumptive kind, to which he (B. C. 444-440), at which he places Pheidias, is
fell a victim after a long and painful illness, B. C. evidently chosen because the first year of that
351. (Diod. xvi. 35-38, 61; Paus. x. 2. ~ 6f Olympiad was the date at which Pericles began to
Harpocr. v. v. aiAXos.) In this natural disease his have the sole administration of Athens" (Clinton,
enemies saw as plainly as in the violent deaths of Fast. Hell. s. a. 444). The date of Pliny deterhis predecessors the retributive justice of the of- mines, therefore, nothing as to the age of Pheidias
fended deities. at this time, nor as to the period over which his
It appears certain that Phayllus had made use artistic life extended. Nevertheless, it seems to us
of the sacred treasures with a far more lavish that this coincidence of the period, during which the
hand than either of his brothers, and he is artist executed his greatest works, with the adminisaccused of bestowing the consecrated ornaments tration of Pericles, furnishes the best clue to the soupon his wife and mistresses. (Diod. xvi. 61; lution of the difficulty. It forbids us to carry up the
Theopolnp. ap. Athen. xiii. p. 605; Ephor. ibid. artist's birth so high as to make him a very old man
vi. p. 232.) The chief command in his hands ap- at this period of his life: not because old age would
pears to have already assumed the character of a necessarily have diminished his powers; thougit
monarchy (Dem. c. Aristocr. p. 661), and began even on this point those who quote the examples of
even to be regarded as hereditary, so that he left Pindar, Sophocles, and other great writers, do not,
it at his death to his nephew Phalaecus, though perhaps, make sufficient allowance for the difference
yet a minor. [PHALAECUS.] [E. H. B.] between the physical force required for the proPHECIA'NUS. [IPHIC.IANUS.] duction of such a work as the Oedipus at Colones
PHEGEUS (,7-/yeus). 1. A brother of Pho- and the execution, or even the superintendence, of
roneus, and king of Psophis in Arcadia. The town such works as the sculptures of the Parthenon, and
of Phegeia, which had before been called Eryman- the colossal statues of Athena and Zeus:-but the
thus, was believed to have derived its name from him. real force of the argument is this; if Pheidias had
Subsequently, however, it was changed again into been already highly distinguished as an artist
Psophis (Steph. Byz. s. v. q7s/yeLa; Paus. viii. 24.
~ 1). He is said to have been the father of Alphe- * The vagueness of Pliny's dates is further
siboea or Arsinoe, Pronous, and Agenor, or of shown by his appending the words "circitcs CCC.
Temenus and Axion (Paus. vi. 17. ~ 4, viii. 24. ~ nostrae Urbis anno," which give a date ten years
4, ix. 41. ~ 2; Apollod. iii. 7. ~ 6); and to have higher, B.c. 454. This, however, cannot be very
purified Alclmaeon after lie had kilicd his mother, far from the date at which Pheidias beyan to work,
It 2